Grade 6 College Vocabulary, Week 20

Definition: the quality of being great, noble and impressive in size or beauty; splendor that fills the beholder with awe.

From the reading: "Albert Bierstadt traveled west and painted the Sierra Nevada as a place of grandeur."

Context: Moran's canyon has the same grandeur. The walls of gold and red make the tiny men on the rocky point look very small.

Synonyms:

majesty, magnificence, splendor

Antonyms:

meanness, plainness, insignificance

Root:French grand, "great," from Latin grandis, "large, full-grown," + -eur, "the quality of."

Definition: a wide, unbroken view of a whole region; (also) a full survey of a subject.

Context: Moran's very wide canvas gives a panorama of the whole canyon, from the pines on the rim to the waterfall at the far end.

Synonyms:

vista, prospect, overview

Antonyms:

glimpse, close-up, detail

Root:Greek pan, "all," + horama, "a view," from horan, "to see." The word was coined in the 1780s for a painting that wrapped all the way around the viewer.

Definition: a very steep or overhanging cliff face; (figuratively) the brink of danger or disaster.

Context: The little figures in Moran's painting stand on a rocky point at the very edge of a precipice, with the river far below.

Synonyms:

cliff, bluff, brink

Antonyms:

plain, lowland, gentle slope

Root:Latin praecipitium, "a headlong fall," from praeceps, "headlong" (prae- "before" + caput "head"): a place where one falls head first.

Definition: a deep, wide opening in the earth; (figuratively) a great gap or difference between people or ideas.

Context: The Yellowstone River has cut a deep chasm through the yellow rock. In the sample poem it is only "a silver thread" at the bottom.

Synonyms:

gorge, abyss, gulf

Antonyms:

ridge, summit; (figurative) agreement, bridge

Root:Greek chasma, "a yawning hollow," from chainein, "to gape."

Definition: not clear, exact or definite; hazy in meaning or outline.

From the reading: "Replace vague words with an image."

Context: "The canyon was very very big and pretty" is vague. "A thousand feet of gold and rust" is a picture.

Synonyms:

unclear, indistinct, hazy

Antonyms:

precise, definite, explicit

Root:Latin vagus, "wandering": words that wander and never land on one thing.

Definition: exact and accurate, with careful attention to detail.

Context: Tennyson wrote "clasps," not "holds." A poet chooses the precise verb, just as a painter chooses the precise color.

Synonyms:

exact, accurate, meticulous

Antonyms:

vague, rough, approximate

Root:Latin praecisus, "cut off, shortened," from prae- "before" + caedere "to cut": trimmed down to exactly what is needed.

Definition: To make an idea or feeling known to someone; to carry or transport from one place to another.

Context: A good image poem conveys what the painting shows without saying "it was amazing."

Synonyms:

communicate, express, impart; (sense 2) carry, transport

Antonyms:

conceal, withhold, suppress

Root:Old French conveier, "to escort," from Latin con- "with" + via "way": to go along the way with something.

Definition: to look over a piece of writing again and change it to make it better.

From the reading: "Read aloud, mark rough spots, and revise twice."

Synonyms:

amend, correct, rework

Antonyms:

leave as is, keep, preserve

Root:Latin revisere, "to look at again," from re- "again" + videre "to see." The lesson calls revision "seeing again."

Definition: a soldier or guard whose job is to stand and keep watch.

Context: High in the tower of the Church of Our Lady, the trumpeter of Krakow is a sentinel over the sleeping city. He watches for fire and danger through the night.

KJV link: "And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came" (2 Kings 9:17). The KJV says watchman. A sentinel does the same work.

Synonyms:

guard, watchman, lookout

Antonyms:

intruder, trespasser

Root:Italian sentinella, probably from sentire, "to perceive, to hear": one who listens and watches.

Definition: serious, grave and dignified; (also) done with religious ceremony or a sacred promise.

Context: When a new trumpeter takes up the post, he makes a solemn oath to sound the hymn faithfully every hour, as the trumpeters before him did.

KJV: "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly" (Joel 1:14).

Synonyms:

grave, earnest, dignified

Antonyms:

frivolous, flippant, lighthearted

Root:Latin sollemnis, "yearly, customary, religious": belonging to fixed, sacred rites.

Definition: deeply faithful to God and earnest in worship and prayer; (also) sincere and wholehearted.

Context: The scholar-priest Jan Kanty, a real man of old Krakow, is devout and wise, and he shelters the Charnetski family.

KJV: "And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25).

Synonyms:

pious, reverent, godly

Antonyms:

irreverent, impious, worldly

Root:Latin devotus, "dedicated by a vow," from devovere (de- + vovere "to vow").

Definition: danger of loss, harm or death.

Context: As long as the Charnetskis keep the Great Tarnov Crystal, their lives are in jeopardy, because cruel men will do anything to seize it.

KJV: "...and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy" (Luke 8:23).

Synonyms:

danger, peril, risk

Antonyms:

safety, security, protection

Root:Old French jeu parti, "a divided game": a game with an even chance of winning or losing.

Definition: to hold someone's attention so completely that the person seems to be under a spell; to hypnotize.

Context: The sly student Tyl seems to mesmerize the old alchemist Kreutz. The scholar no longer thinks clearly and does what he is told.

Synonyms:

hypnotize, spellbind, entrance

Antonyms:

bore, awaken, release

Root:Named for Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), an Austrian doctor who claimed he could control people by a hidden force.

Definition: a belief or practice based on fear, magic or chance rather than on reason, knowledge or true faith.

Context: The alchemists of Krakow dreamed of turning lead into gold. The novel sets their superstition against honest study of God's ordered world.

Synonyms:

irrational belief, myth, old wives' tale

Antonyms:

reason, knowledge, sound judgment

Root:Latin superstitio, literally "a standing over" (super "over" + stare "to stand"). Its first meaning was excessive fear of the gods.

Definition: a great, destructive fire.

Context: In the novel, a fire breaks out from the alchemist's dark workshop. It spreads into a conflagration that threatens much of the city.

Synonyms:

blaze, inferno, firestorm

Antonyms:

spark, ember; (opposite act) extinguishing

Root:Latin conflagrare, "to burn up," from con- (completely) + flagrare "to blaze."

Definition: to steal goods by force, especially in war or riot; (noun) the goods taken.

Context: When the Tartars swept into Poland in 1241, they came to plunder Krakow. The novel's story of the trumpeter's broken hymn begins in that attack.

Synonyms:

loot, pillage, ransack

Antonyms:

protect, guard, restore

Root:German plündern, "to rob," from Plunder, "household goods, bedding": to strip a house bare.

Definition: to lead someone to believe or do something by giving good reasons or by pleading.

From the reading: "His huge painting of the canyon helped persuade Americans that the place should be protected"

KJV: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come" (Romans 8:38).

Synonyms:

convince, induce, sway

Antonyms:

dissuade, discourage, deter

Root:Latin persuadere, from per- (thoroughly) + suadere "to urge, advise."

Definition: a price paid to free a captive; (verb) to buy someone's freedom.

Context: Men who covet a famous jewel might kidnap its keeper and demand the jewel as his ransom. Faithful keepers have to stay on guard.

KJV: "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

Synonyms:

payment, price, redemption

Antonyms:

(none exact) seizure, capture

Root:Old French rançon, from Latin redemptio, "a buying back," the same root as redemption.

Definition: a person trusted with guarding, keeping or caring for something valuable.

Context: For generations the Charnetski family were the faithful custodians of the Great Tarnov Crystal. They had sworn to guard it, and they did not sell it.

Synonyms:

keeper, guardian, steward

Antonyms:

thief, plunderer, squanderer

Root:Latin custos, custodis, "a guard, keeper."

Definition: so precious that its worth cannot be measured. (Careful: it does not mean "without value." Tests like to check this.)

Context: Men thought the crystal invaluable, yet the Charnetskis' faithfulness to their oath was worth even more.

Synonyms:

priceless, precious, inestimable

Antonyms:

worthless, valueless, trivial

Root:in- (not) + valuable, in the old sense "able to be valued": too precious to be given a price.